Pokémon - A tribute
by Nimley
Summary: Valentina is a 17 year old girl who longs to be a Pokémon Professor. Starting from an island literary in the middle of nowhere she sets foot to her own Pokémon adventure accompanied by her best friend Joe and a rather strange Pokémon which is unable to use attacks.
1. Living in the middle of nowhere

**In the middle of nowhere**

* * *

In a very vast, blue ocean, somewhere far beyond the Orange Islands and even south of the Hoenn Region lies Rubicon, a small, remote region marooned in the chaos of the world map. There is barely something remarkable, which might have made this spot lucrative in any way.

There are only a few cities and the Pokémon living there resemble the species in the Hoenn region except for the fact that there number is not quite as high.

Considering this and also the present isolation this region becomes a paradise of boredom and uneventful days, however our story start here. On a small island north of main archipelago.

Trinomica Island is famous for… well, actually there is nothing which it might have been famous for since there is actually nothing.

It lies in the sea, which is haunted by rough tides and strong currents so that the only chance to ever reach this horrible sounding place is by taking a small plane or flying type Pokémon. In addition to that a visit is only possible during the months of May until August since this is the only time, where there are no storms.

This is also why the local vegetation only consists of a few Hondew Berries –it's been centuries since the last wild Pokémon have been seen.

Despite those adverse circumstances there are humans living on this island – in fact life is plenty vivid there. There is a gym, the world-wide biggest factory for PokéBalls and even an institute investigating the global climate related to the ecosystem of Pokémon.

It was early morning for our female protagonist – 11.23am – usually the time she slowly dimmed from the REM-phase of her sleep in order to also spend the last hours until afternoon watching the backside of her lids, when suddenly a loud voice was heard in a small, beautiful house at the outskirts of Blackville and – considering the volume – might have also reached the other side of Trinomica Island.

"Sparky? Are you awake already?"

The addressed person, Valentina "Sparky" Sparks, 17 years old and passionate slugabed startled from her dreams only moments later and almost jumped up to the ceiling from shock. Usually this would not have been the case but her mother's call had immediately reminded her what day it was.

Horror written on her face her gaze fell upon the clock in her room and she had to realise that she overslept her appointment with Professor Maple – overslept meaning she was more than three hours late.

"Sparky?", her mother's voice was heard again from downstairs since she still hadn't received a reply from her daughter. Only a loud "dammit!", echoed back down the stairs before various sound could be heard, which slightly reminded of a nuclear war.

With lightning speed Valentina had got out of her bed and dressed herself – no time for showering today – and also somehow managed to put her long hair in a ponytail.

The last word her mother heard was "I'm off" – only 2 minutes after her calling upstairs – before the door was shut.

The heat outside was immense – but the only thing (plus various other weather anomalies) Trinomica Island was actually known for.

Despite that fact that Valentine lived on the outskirts of town – together with her mother and her elder brother – the streets were rather vivid. It was the middle of June – main season in Blickville, since otherwise the journey there would have been impossible.

Usually both the city and the rest of the island went extinct, but now crowds of trainers flooded the city coming from various regions in order to challenge the local gym leader – which was by the way Valentina's brother – and also to buy special PokéBalls at the factory sale.

Usually the young girl would enjoy just sitting somewhere watching all those strangers and their Pokémon – in fact these didn't exist on the island which was located literally at the edge of the world – but today she was in a freaking hurry. It was questionable if running would be of any use, since she was already three hours late.

She didn't think about that.

Generally there was nothing really going on in Valentina's mind right now – her body solely lived for running and the nervous feelings she was experiencing.

The appointment had been at 8 o'clock and she was terrible late – which meant nothing good was about to happen, because Professor Maple was a rather strict person. She pushed herself up to her limits.

She was afraid that there was no use at all and that her first Pokémon might have been given to somebody else and instead she'd only get – if she got something – a caterpie which had eaten an Eviolite.

In the meantime she had reached the plateau which lay between the city and the Professor's lab – somewhere in the distant she could already see the telescope shimmering.

This place – as everyone equally says – counted to the most desolate places existing. The plain in front of her consisted of dry, light brown earth and a few single, rugged rocks – few berry trees clinged themselves to small bits of fertile ground in solitude. Apart from that there was nothing but the strong west wind, which made Valentina shiver despite the heat.

She had stopped for a short moment after running the last kilometre like a lunatic but now she gazed – more determined than ever – towards the laboratory. Her fear had vanished and she was incredibly sure she would get her first Pokémon today – no matter what may come – still she could barely explain where this sudden motivation came from but was sure that her running contributed its part.

One deep breath before she continued to walk now – a wry grin was now on her face and she felt more self-confident with every step she took.

Years – she has been waiting years for this day to come and now it was there; nothing could possibly go wrong, nothing must go wrong.

It was a rare privilege that Trinomica Island brought forward young people with the will to become a Pokémon trainer – but if it did, it was always difficult for those to take their first step – the lack of Pokémon to start with only one argument.

Once living with Pokémon was an unreachable dream for those who were born on the island, but when Professor Maple came to the island this terrible condition finally changed.

Once in every three years he made a long travel to the main island and caught Pokémon for all those who mastered the trainer school he had built up on the island.

Classes consisted only of five people and maximum, since most people seemed to be rather content with their live here – most inhabitants shared the property of being incredibly stubborn (not Valentina of couse).

In her class there have been legendary eight pupils but only she and her best friend Joe passed the particular final exam, Professor Maple always insisted on. All rookie trainers had to pass these tests in order to earn their first Pokémon – that's the way he was; but at least he took the effort of going to the main island for at least a month in order to choose a Pokémon which fitted his former pupils.

For Valentina it was her dream coming true, but there was still her being late which could be considered as irresponsible and therefore might make the Professor reconsider his decision. This did not only mean that she would never own a Pokémon herself – there was only one chance – but also the only destroy her only possibility to fulfil her life's goal: to become a Pokémon researcher. In addtition she wanted to participate in the Pokémon League once.

Meanwhile she already walked half of the way to the laboratory, when suddenly something was blinding her, as is someone took a mirror and reflected the bright sunlight right into her eyes…

There wasn't anyone nearby… and no mirror at all.

She looked around searching while the bright light beam still fell on the spot she was standing on. She looked up to the sky and had to protect her eyes with her hands – she could spot an airplane far above, but could not think of any possibility that thing could reflect the sun down on her. She closed her eyes half but couldn't recognise anything.

She analysed the sky. "Nothing. Nothing.", she went through her head, "nothing… Nothing. Flying Pokémon. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing… What the hell?!"

She took a closer look. A strangely shaped shadow was clearly visible at the blue sky not far away from the plan – somehow it reminded her of a Pokémon.

There was only a minor problem.

There were no flying Pokémon on Trinomica Island.

There were no Pokémon in general.

The shadow grew bigger and she put more effort into recognising the shape which kinda reminded her of a Porygon that approached her with incredible speed.

She was so fascinated by the flying – or rather falling – Pokémon that neither a desperate and panicking "PORY PORY!"-sound, nor the fact that she had just been transformed into a human target which made its way into her mind. Instead she just stood there and observed how the blue-pink Pokémon was heading right into her direction.

Its feet struggled wildly and it continued to shout, but the young girl was mesmerized and didn't move an inch.

It came as it was bound to happen and Porygon fell right into Valentina's arms – in fact not half as romantic and beautiful as this might sound at first, because the impulse chucked her on the ground and made her slide a few metres back.

When she finally stopped the only recognisable sound was a painful coughing and for the time being she remained motionless on her back fighting for her consciousness.

She could feel something shivering in her arms and finally found the energy to get up und have a look at that thing that hit her – literally – like a meteorite.

"You alright, dear?", she had difficulties talking since her stomach ached and had to rub the back of her head which wasn't any better.

She felt as if she was run over by a herd of Tauros and sent a curious yet suspicious gaze to the thing in her arms.

This "thing" finally found the courage to part from her securing arms and returned her expression with deep affection and gratitude.

Maybe she was hallucinating but the fact that there were actually tears in the Porygon's eyes was rather disturbing.

"Pory!", was its answer and cheerful as if nothing happened the small creature jumped down from her lap, hovered around her once, jumped at her and pushed her into the dirt.

"Pory!", it repeated and started to jump around on her wrecked body. She defined this behaviour as gratitude and forced herself so smile before she realised something.

"Hey, pal", she sat up, "would you mind telling me why you just fell from the sky?"

It understood the question and now it tried to tell her – using his rather limited means consisting of floating, jumping and calling – that it fell down from an airplane together with a Usaring and that it now – safely – landed on this island. Unfortunately Valentina's knowledge of the Porygon-language was sort of rusty, respectively not-existent after all and therefore she hat now idea what that little was so desperately trying to explain to her. Neither did she get the fact, that there was the possibility that a giant Ursaring might roam the island, when suddenly only a few metres away, something hit the ground and caused a minor earthquake. What followed was an earth-shattering roar.


	2. First battle

Hello there fellow readers, it's nice to see you around (:  
Before I continue with the next chapters just a few things for you information.

As you might have read in my profile - or probably not - I'm from Germany and therefore no native speaker of the English language - however I will put my greatest effort in not making any mistakes. However if you still find some MAJOR grammar or spelling mistake be not afraid to tell me - I'm always grateful for any help to improve my skills.  
Also I want to apologise in advance for all "strange" expressions that might come across you in this story. I'm doing my best to use idiomatic English but there probably are a few German expressions which found there way into there story - just ask or tell me.  
At eventually: This fanfiction already exists in German so therefore it is a translation. Of course I will also translate the Pokémon names, but there's always the chance that I mike overlook something.

Long story short. Tell me if you find something strange or if you actually like the story. Thanks for reading and have fun!

* * *

Chapter 2: First battle

* * *

The roar sounded like thunder when it rolled over the huge Plateau and made Valentina shrink, while Porygon kept running panicky around her pedalling like crazy with its tiny feet.

The girl didn't dare to turn around and had to gulp when something started to move right behind her back throwing its tremendous shadow directly on her – Porygon was scared stiff.

Valentina turned round in slow motion, wishing for it to be just a cloud which casted the shadow and spotted brown fur. Her gaze started to wander upwards… higher… higher… and in deed right in front of her there was a Usaring which did not look overly happy.

Carefully she turned her head back to the front. "Is this what I think it is?", she asked Porygon her voice nothing more but a soft tremor.

The answer was a faint "Mhm, Pory."

Her throat became dry and she was certain that she would die right here and now if she didn't start running immediately. Ursaring would have caught up in no time at all, but if she made it to the gym at least – which happened not to be very far away – her brother could probably help her out. Her brain worked without a pause.

If she just left Porygon behind… that would buy her some extra time… and Porygon was a Pokémon which was able to fight.

Her gaze was appraising but it seemed to suspect what she was planning to do because it looked at her cloudily.

_Okay… maybe not_, she thought to herself.

So there was one possibility left.

"Oh look out! Tasty berries!", she shouted and pointed out one berry tree, which was not far away but in to opposite direction to where she wanted to head.

She did not take any time to have a look if her so-called plan worked out, but instead grabbed Porygon and started to run for her life. The roar behind are proved her wrong – her brilliant strategy had failed.

She pushed herself but had to find out that she had a problem very soon… actually she even got two of them.

First: After running half of the way up here like a total lunatic her legs were weak and she didn't know how long she could perservere.

Second: Unfortunately a Porygon had a total weight of almos 40 kilogramm and after taking a few steps she had to put it down and instead of running like hell she now needed to jog beside the Pokémon.

Ursaring's roar could probably heard around the globe and Valentina realised that its heavy stomping kept approaching while she hadn't even made it halfway to the gym.

By now and in addition to that she ran out of ideas what could save the to of them now and peered furtively at Porygon which was floating by her side…

Porygon was a Pokémon after all… Pokémon were capable of fighting…

"STOP!", she shouted and drew up.

Well, at least this put a small impression on the massive Pokémon behind her, because its steps faded away and an impatient snorting was audible.

Determinedly Valentina turned around:

"Stop. I am not a darstard. We will settle this now – the correct way. Ursaring, I challenge you to fight!"

While saying this she pointed her finger on the bear-like Pokémon and felt really stupid only moments later.

_That really sounds like a poor Anime, _she thought to herself. However Ursaring nodded in agreement and put itself in its fighting position.

"Porygon, I choose you!", the girl called and again pointed idiotically on the Ursaring.

"PORY?!", the fellows reaction was pure dismay and it didn't move one inch.

"Porygon… It's your turn!", she repeated but it remained in its position – Valentina felt like a moron, especially when realising the small Pokémon's gaze.

Ursaring growled impatiently.

"Listen, pal", she let out a huge sigh, "the two of us are in the same boat and if we don't find a solution fast, we will be in for it soon.

You are a Pokémon and I'm a trainer – well… let's say almost – and I know that the two of us can handle this shit. You are a Porygon and capable of doing strong Psy-Pokémon-attacks and I can tell you, how you can use them the best way.

Ursaring may be strong, but we both, the two of us, are much stronger. What do you think, Porygon? Wanna beat up that ass?"

"Pory! Por!", motivated the Pokémon planted itself in front of her threateningly – as far as this was possible for a porygon, though.

Ursaring roared and the battle began. For her safety Valentina moved back a few metres.

Immediately Ursaring attacked with a furious bite and Porygon managed to float to the side at the eleventh hour.

It send asking looks to its trainer but she seemed to be rather overwhelmed by the situation.

Neither it was the huge opponent right in front of her nor the fact that they were pretty much fucked up if they lost; the problem was that this was Valentina's very first real battle situation – she experienced stage fright.

"PORY", the virtual Pokémon was indignant but it helped Valentina to get back online.

"Oh yeah", she started to murmur, but finally raised her voice, "go, Porygon! HYPER BEAM!"

Porygon jumped to the front determined, polled its strengths and… nothing happened.

It landed on the ground and watched its trainer shaking its head – Ursaring seemed rather displeased and disordered.

Valentina facepalmed herself and resisted the urge to rip out her brain and throw it at the opponent.

She beat the all-time top score in Professor Maples test subject "Pokémon and Attacks" and just now she had tried to make a Porygon use Hyper Beam.

"Sorry!", she called, "I mean… use… Confusion!"

She was quite sure about Porygon knowing this attack – even on a low level – but no matter how hard the Pokémon tried it didn't succeed in using the attack.

"Well… I admit this went not as I expected… Let's try Tackle!", her determination to win this battle has diminished in the meantime – everything seemed to be going totally wrong. At least even on level 1 a Porygon knew this attack – question was how good were the chances of a level 1 Porygon to win against a grown-up Ursaring.

The small Pokémon faced the bigger one and then started to madly float from left to right and back.

"Pooory", it called and sounded very strained doing this. The movement changed from left-to-right-and-back to floating in circles until Porygon stopped eventually feeling rather dizzy and unable to move any further.

"For real?!", asked Valentina close to pure desperation. Ursaring therefore had finally lost its patience at let out a loud roar while starting to attack the innocent and now unprotected Porygon.

However the girl couldn't just stand back watching that's why she started running and positioned herself in front of the fainted Pokémon.

Ursaring had planted itself in front of her and raised its long, deadly, shimmering claws.

She shut her eyes, didn't move and waited for the impact.

"Slowking! Use Disable!", a voice called to her left followed by the sound of the Pokémon.

"Slooo Sloooo!"

Nothing else happened.

After a few seconds Valentina finally dared to open her eyes. Ursaring's claws shimmered only a few inches away from her face and by seeing this, her facial expression slipped.

Behind her there was an exhausting "Pory" when the blue-pink Pokémon finally regained its consciousness. Valentina moved back a few steps and examined the frozen Ursaring, which shimmered in a soft blue tone.

"So typical. For. You. Little sis. Your first day as a Pokémon trainer and you already start to become megalomaniac", her brother's mocking voice was approaching from one side.

"Puh", she tried to behave at least a little dignified, but in her current state it was impossible not to show her relief about the her brother's appearance and the fear she had felt just moments ago.

Even with Slowking using Disable she still feared Ursaring making Pokémon-food out of her in only seconds.

"Are you alright?", a hand was put and her shoulder and she finally managed to turn her face away from the beast.

Her brother like her had silver hair and rather pale Skin, eyes shimmering in bright yellow-green he gave her a comforting smile. Nikolai was the local gymleader and with his casual behaviour, his looks and his strong Psychic Pokémon (in addition he was the eighth and last gymleader) the most famous among his kind.

He was 24 and when he started as a trainer he got Slowpoke as his first friend, which had become his faithful Slowking by now. Additionally his team consisted of Metagross, Xatu and Gardevoir. Valentina used to grow up with all and was almost as close to them as her brother.

What least people knew of her brother: in his little sister opinion he was also completely insane and mentally disturbed:

He took her in a headlock and rubbed his fist over her head.

"Didn't I tell you not to start fighting the big chunks in the beginning, siiiiis? It's always your dear and lovely brother who has to take care of you. Maybe you still not ready to go on your own adventure?"

She needed great effort to free herself from his grip and eventually found enough breath and time to explain the rather uncommon situation to him.

"What are you actually doing here?", she ended her story.

"Eh? It's 12 o'clock, darling? Lunchtime?", he used his fist to tip her forehead.

12 o'clock. This day sucked terribly. Valetina swallowed hard.

"Ah don't worry, Val", he grinned jauntily, "you sure will get a Pokémon which is able to fight."

"PORY!", indignantly Porygon, which had almost gained his former strength back by now, head-butted him against his shinbone.

"Dammit", he swore and touched the hurting spot, "well… If I was you I'd better hurry and get to Professor Maple now and tell him the whole story. Maybe he's got any ideas. And by the way you can introduce your new little companion here, I'm sure you won't get rid of it that fast."

He nodded in Porygon's direction which started a dance of joy around his new friend only interrupted by a few jumps. This seemed like its way to thank her.

"And what are you planning to do with THAT?!", with a strong gaze she reminded him that there was still a huge Ursaring standing around like a Christmas tree.

"Well. I will worry about that", oh he was so cool, "you better hurry up. Three hours of being late might be okay but after four hours your Pokémon might be given…"

The rest of his sentence faded, because his sister started to run like hell without looking back her new friend desperately trying to follow her.

Her brother stood still grinning before his expression changed all of sudden when his gaze hit Ursaring. It shouldn't be here. There were no Ursaring in Rubicon.

His last look lasted on the dust his sister whirled up, when he drew a Pokéball.


End file.
